Ballad of the White Horse : poem by G.K. Chesterton.
... that on occasion he rides out on a more Pegasus-like hoof-stroke. In short, we fail to recognise that he has fought his way, though with many falls, into the kingdom of poetry with his Ballad of the White Horse. As a vehicle for narration, the ballad-form can be stirring and ringing, or else sweet, in a popular way; but to sustain in it a story which keeps a tense edge of magical or splendid... closing words in that little speech to Colan give a powerful depth, but breadth too accompanies it. All the three lines together give a pretty adequate average of the virtues which carry The Ballad of the White Horse , despite many clumsy or flat moments, to a place in poetic literature — forceful figurative sight, beautifully suggested thought or feeling, sense of the inward significance of life's happenings ...
... Celtic mythology lets loose wonderful horses into the English imagination. I have read a bit of Vernon Watkins but not come across his "Ballad of the Mari Lwyd". I have enjoyed Chesterton's "Ballad of the White Horse" but no actual white horse takes part in the story: only the location of the tale is indicated by that name. It's sad that so fine a symbol spells only "death" for the Christian mind. Down ...
... How did his globe-trotting steps turn right towards your Kentish house? Your short but vivid account of Champaklal's play with the ancient sword sent my mind to an incident in Chesterton's Ballad of the White Horse: the feat of bow-less and sling-less Colan the Gael, swifter than the arrow-flight attempted by Earl Harold from the opposite side: Whirling the one sword round his head, A ...
... defect—but would a greater genius have cared to make the endeavour? I have left myself no space or time for Chesterton as a poet and it is better so because I have not read the poem [ The Ballad of the White Horse ] and know him only by extracts. Your passages establish him as a poet, a fine and vivid poet by intervals, but not as a great or an epic poet—that is my impression. Sometimes I find your ...
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